We don’t see Mr NQN’s family much. A few years ago we’d spend a lot of time with them but nowadays it’s mostly Mr NQN and his younger brother, chick magnet The Assman. They hang out and do boy things. You know sitting quietly, fixing things and having silent manly conversations. Typical boys. They are the  polar opposite of what I do with my girlfriends

A few of you have asked about the Assman and I should reiterate that the reason why he is called that is because he worked in Asset Management and he loves Seinfeld, not because he is a proctologist or a sleazy guy. He is also a vegetarian as is the rest of Mr NQN’s family. Mr NQN was the only one to start eating meat at sixteen years of age. Now Mr NQN’s mum always worries that Mr NQN doesn’t get enough tofu. My mum worries that I don’t make enough money, and Mr NQN’s mum worries that he doesn’t eat enough tofu. I chuckle at the disparity. Mr NQN’s mum perhaps thinks that we tuck into a meat fest every night (and perhaps we won’t tell her that Mr NQN became recently addicted to beef tartar and foie gras au torchon while in Montreal). So when we invited her and The Assman over I knew that there was one recipe that I just had to make for them.

Red Pepper Paste

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Birthdays are a funny thing. They can be bittersweet for some like Mr NQN who never liked them owing to receiving somewhat strange presents growing up. If he had his way, he wouldn’t even celebrate it. Not for me however. A birthday is an excuse for cake and any occasion that calls for cake is a good thing. And what comes with every birthday is presents and a dinner so for the food obsessed (moi) it is a great excuse to have a weekend long party. And this upcoming weekend is my birthday, something that thrills me to no end, even if those around me remain bewildered by my happy dances (I’m looking at you Mr NQN ).

I know there are some out there that just don’t sweets. I’m not one of them and I suspect if I tried to tell you that you’d probably all laugh quite loudly as my predilection for cakes and sweet is rather obviously catalogued in this blog. For some though, a piece of sweet cake isn’t quite as enticing as a savoury one and for them I offer this recipe, an alternative cake which you can make large, and is more often made large for gatherings.

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After my Duck Off adventure which was preceded by a 10 course Japanese meal, I needed to compensate for my unholy ingestion of food by balancing it with seven days of salads. When we holidayed in Thailand a few years ago, we were told that Thai women turn to this Som Tum salad when they want to lose weight as it’s healthy, high fibre and low fat. They use tiny dried crabs which are things that I don’t particularly go for (and I had no idea where I would find them). I was also told that the secret to the petite and slender Thai figure is that Thai women infrequently have the coconut laced curries and if they do they eat small portions of it whereas whenever we eat Thai foods, we go straight for the delicious but calorie laden foods.

I was sent some gorgeously sweet and fresh Crystal Bay prawns and I knew that these would be the perfect substitute for those tiny crabs. I’m used to seeing Crystal Bay prawns on restaurant menus – you know when they’re something to write home about when they name the origin or brand of an item and they are reportedly used by Tetsuya and Neil Perry.

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